Going third person with this feels pretty pretentious. And Dion McInnis is not that kind of guy. Then again, the first person presumes that what I have to say about me is really interesting and important enough to you that I can lecture you on it, whether you like it or not. In the end “I” is much shorter than “Dion McInnis”, so…

I’m a problem solver, a thinker, a tinkerer and a compulsivist. (This feels less like bragging and more like a confession.) I am ever-occupied. Fortunately, my interests and compulsions are sometimes professionally desirable, and so hopefully justifiable.

I build, fix, expand, construct, enhance and improve things. I follow the repairman, exterminator, inspector, meter reader, mechanic and plumber around so I can learn how to do more things. On occasion, they follow me around and watch me do stuff.

I am recently married to an amazing woman whose beauty, ambition and determination are surpassed only by her kindness. And I think she likes me, too. Her only real complaint thus far is that in my desire to tell stories, I wind up talking about our business too much. I am trying to do better.

Also, I’m going to be a dad. This is pretty scary because, as many people know, I am epically ambitious, with an out-sized world view. Yet, for all of my grand objectives and fantastic imaginings, nothing has ever compared in certainty and importance to my eventual fatherhood. Everything I have loved before is soon to be comparatively irrelevant. That’s actually pretty cool.

On a related note, to clarify, if “Dion McInnis” sounds familiar, you may know my father, also Dion McInnis – author, photographer, poet and essayist who daylights in academe. We’re definitely not the same dude.